--- title: Wellness Coach Training - Real Balance Certified Health and Wellness Coach Training description: Get certified as a health and wellness coach with Real Balance. Comprehensive training and certification designed for wellness and healthcare professionals. --- # Wellness Coach Training ## [“Coaching for a Lifetime of Wellness: Five Keys to Sustainable Behavioral Change”](https://realbalance.com/coaching-for-a-lifetime-of-wellness-five-keys-to-sustainable-behavioral-change) ![Wellness Coaching for Lasting Lifestyle Change](https://realbalance.com/images/wellness-blog/800x600/2nd-ed-cover-med.jpg) **The theme of the 41st Annual National Wellness Conference was *“Spotlight On Sustainability”*.** While we often think about sustainability and our environmental practices, as a wellness coach and psychologist I immediately thought of **sustainable behavioral change**. As I prepared for my presentation on this topic my research revealed that **we actually know very little about how effective our**… [Read more …](https://realbalance.com/coaching-for-a-lifetime-of-wellness-five-keys-to-sustainable-behavioral-change) ## [2010-2020 A Decade of Growth for Wellness Coaching](https://realbalance.com/2010-2020-a-decade-of-growth-for-wellness-coaching) ![Real Balance Wellness Class](https://realbalance.com/images/wellness-blog/800x600/Real-Balance-Global-Wellness-class.jpg) **After years of building a foundation, health and wellness coaching has flourished in the last decade.** At the beginning of this last decade the International Coach Federation was only fifteen years old and the National Board for Health and Wellness Coaching hadn’t even been thought of yet. My book, [*Wellness Coaching for Lasting Lifestyle Change*](https://wholeperson.com/store/wellness-coaching-for-lasting-lifestyle-change.shtml), had been on the… [Read more …](https://realbalance.com/2010-2020-a-decade-of-growth-for-wellness-coaching) ## [China Embraces Real Balance Wellness Coaching](https://realbalance.com/china-embraces-real-balance-wellness-coaching) ![Real Balance Wellness & Health Coach Certification Class in Shanghai – 2017](https://realbalance.com/images/wellness-blog/800x600/class-pic-best-med.jpeg) **Faced with the same lifestyle-based health crisis many other countries are experiencing, China has been searching for a way to help people truly succeed at lasting lifestyle change**. Over half of the men in China smoke. The diabetes rate is now higher than the United States, with heart disease, COPD and other “lifestyle diseases” on the rise. Health information… [Read more …](https://realbalance.com/china-embraces-real-balance-wellness-coaching) ## [Client-Centered Directiveness: An Oxymoron That Works – Part One](https://realbalance.com/client-centered-directiveness-an-oxymoron-that-works-part-one) ![direct ororchestra](https://realbalance.com/images/wellness-blog/800x600/directororchestra1.jpg) **At its very foundation, coaching is client-centered. The work of Carl Rogers profoundly influenced the founders of the life coaching profession.** Yet, among the thousands of health and wellness coaches we have trained at Real Balance ([http://www.realbalance.com](http://www.realbalance.com)),**the question of how directive or non-directive to be remains an area of unsureness and anxiety.** ![Carl Rogers 1902-1987](https://realbalance.com/images/rogerswhitebkgrd.webp)As time marches on… [Read more …](https://realbalance.com/client-centered-directiveness-an-oxymoron-that-works-part-one) ## [Coaching Emotions for Better Lifestyle Choices](https://realbalance.com/coaching-emotions-for-better-lifestyle-choices) ![2 people in the forest](https://realbalance.com/images/wellness-blog/800x600/two-people-forest.jpg) Check out the best in Health Coach Training: [www.realblance.com](https://realbalance.com/) Lifestyle behavioral change is not simply a rational process. Emotions influence or sometimes completely determine the outcome of decisions we are confronted with every day. ***When dealing with people remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but creatures of emotion.*** [Read more …](https://realbalance.com/coaching-emotions-for-better-lifestyle-choices) ## [Delivering The Behavioral Side Of Lifestyle Medicine Through Wellness Coaching](https://realbalance.com/delivering-the-behavioral-side-of-lifestyle-medicine-through-wellness-coaching) ![Wellness Coaching: Bringing Light To Lifestyle Medicine](https://realbalance.com/images/wellness-blog/800x600/jf-0099-copy.jpg) ***“If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health.”*** Hippocrates 420 B.C – 370 B.C. Healthcare providers have been prescribing lifestyle improvement for thousands of years. The evidence has been built from the observations of Hippocrates all the way… [Read more …](https://realbalance.com/delivering-the-behavioral-side-of-lifestyle-medicine-through-wellness-coaching) ## [Keys to Coaching Clients Who Overidentify With Their Illness](https://realbalance.com/keys-to-coaching-clients-who-overidentify-with-their-illness) ![pier ocean](https://realbalance.com/images/wellness-blog/800x600/wellness.jpg) **We like to say that a coach listens to a person’s story and helps them to realize that they are not their story.** For the health-challenged client, their illness, conditions, or health experience is a huge part of their story. ***“I am a diabetic.”*** While this is true, how strongly does the person now see themselves through this lens? What… [Read more …](https://realbalance.com/keys-to-coaching-clients-who-overidentify-with-their-illness) ## [Making and Maintaining The Shift To The Coaching Mindset](https://realbalance.com/making-and-maintaining-the-shift-to-the-coaching-mindset) ![clouds vista perspective](https://realbalance.com/images/wellness-blog/800x600/cloud-vista-perspective.jpg) **We meet our coaching client with the very best of intentions.** We want to help. And help sometimes means throwing ourselves into doing what the client seems to be unable to do themselves up to this point – figure out solutions. Instead of empowering our clients to come to their own solutions, we seek to fix it for them. We… [Read more …](https://realbalance.com/making-and-maintaining-the-shift-to-the-coaching-mindset) ## [Masterful Health & Wellness Coaching: Deepening Your Craft A New Book by Dr. Michael Arloski, coming in 2020](https://realbalance.com/masterful-health-wellness-coaching-deepening-your-craft-a-new-book-by-dr-michael-arloski-coming-in-2020) ![Michael Arloski, Ph.D., PCC, CWP, NBC-HWC](https://realbalance.com/images/wellness-blog/800x600/arloski.mike_.1506_pp.jpg) *The profession of health and wellness coaching is fully engaged in a process of transformation. As we grow to be of service to wellness programs, lifestyle medicine practices, employee assistance programs, insurance carriers, disease management companies, and all manner of healthcare providers, around the globe, the demand for greater quality coaching only builds.**We are moving from a need for*… [Read more …](https://realbalance.com/masterful-health-wellness-coaching-deepening-your-craft-a-new-book-by-dr-michael-arloski-coming-in-2020) ## [Motivation Plus Mobilization: Coaching For Success At Lifestyle Improvement](https://realbalance.com/motivation-plus-mobilization-coaching-for-success-at-lifestyle-improvement) ![panda body](https://realbalance.com/images/wellness-blog/800x600/panda-body.jpg) **“I just don’t seem to have the motivation to really make changes.”** This is a lament frequent to the ears of health and wellness coaches. Our clients are often puzzled by a lack of success in their efforts to start living a healthy lifestyle, or keep such efforts going. They blame it on either a lack of motivation to get… [Read more …](https://realbalance.com/motivation-plus-mobilization-coaching-for-success-at-lifestyle-improvement) ## [New 2nd Edition Of Wellness Coaching For Lasting Lifestyle Change](https://realbalance.com/new-2nd-edition-of-wellness-coaching-for-lasting-lifestyle-change) ![wellness coaching book 2nd edition](https://realbalance.com/images/wellness-blog/800x600/book-cover-5b.jpg) In 2007 ***Wellness Coaching For Lasting Lifestyle Change*** became the first comprehensive health and wellness coaching book published. Written expressly for the practitioner, it quickly became the foundational book of the field and has remained so to this day. Updated in 2009 it has served as the go-to book for independent coaches, health care and wellness professionals, and is often… [Read more …](https://realbalance.com/new-2nd-edition-of-wellness-coaching-for-lasting-lifestyle-change) ## [Real Balance GLOBAL – Taking Wellness Coaching To China](https://realbalance.com/real-balance-global-taking-wellness-coaching-to-china) ![map of china](https://realbalance.com/images/wellness-blog/800x600/map-of-china4.gif) **What The World Health Organization dubbed *“Lifestyle Disease”* is a global phenomenon.** The increase of non-communicable disease is going up the fastest in what is sometimes called the developing countries of the world. ***“Twenty-five years ago, the number of people with diabetes in China was less than one percent. Today, China has more than 114 million people suffering from the***… [Read more …](https://realbalance.com/real-balance-global-taking-wellness-coaching-to-china) ## [Refining Coaching Linguistics: Verbal Tics, Placeholders and Fingerprint Words](https://realbalance.com/refining-coaching-linguistics-verbal-tics-placeholders-and-fingerprint-words) ![linguistics](https://realbalance.com/images/wellness-blog/800x600/linguistics-660x330.jpg) In a recent New York Times article, writer Gregg Easterbrook shared this observation of modern day speech. "***The verbal tic of saying “real quick” is surging ahead of “you know” in the American lexicon.** “You know” is an empty expression, a verbal placeholder. By contrast, “real quick” has significance, reflecting the continuing acceleration of life. “Good morning, I would*… [Read more …](https://realbalance.com/refining-coaching-linguistics-verbal-tics-placeholders-and-fingerprint-words) ## [Seven Expressions Of Courageous Coaching](https://realbalance.com/seven-expressions-of-courageous-coaching) ![northern trip](https://realbalance.com/images/wellness-blog/800x600/northern_trip.jpg) **Courageous coaching! What would “courageous coaching” look like for you?** There are many ways to approach the subject of courage in coaching. As a trainer of wellness & health coaches here are some of the ways I would like to see courage show up for the coaches we educate. **1. The Courage To Stand For NCRW- Naturally Creative, Resourceful**… [Read more …](https://realbalance.com/seven-expressions-of-courageous-coaching) ## [Structure Is The Wellness Coach’s Friend: Seven Ways To Coach Better](https://realbalance.com/structure-is-the-wellness-coachs-friend-seven-ways-to-coach-better) ![wellness coaching graph](https://realbalance.com/images/wellness-blog/800x600/wiseuseoftime.png) **Great coaching finds a balance between structure and spontaneity, customization, “dancing in the moment” and organization.** While some large coaching organizations err on the side of too much structure, using scripts and ridged protocols, some coaches “wing it” way too much. Listening to hundreds of coaching recordings, done with real clients, I’m continually amazed at how loosely many coaches go… [Read more …](https://realbalance.com/structure-is-the-wellness-coachs-friend-seven-ways-to-coach-better) ## [The Bigger Mindset Shift: Waking Up To Lasting Lifestyle Improvement](https://realbalance.com/the-bigger-mindset-shift-waking-up-to-lasting-lifestyle-improvement) ![earth sunrise](https://realbalance.com/images/wellness-blog/800x600/earth-sunrise-wallpaper.jpg) **Just back from a whirlwind of professional travel, I’m struck by a pervasive awakening that our health is largely behavioral, and if we truly want to improve health worldwide, we must seek methods that support success at lasting lifestyle improvement.** At the ***Lifestyle Medicine 2015 Conference **[http://lifestylemedicine2015.org](http://lifestylemedicine2015.org)*, where I presented, we saw that the medical profession is embracing wellness… [Read more …](https://realbalance.com/the-bigger-mindset-shift-waking-up-to-lasting-lifestyle-improvement) ## [The Great Utility of Coaching In The Emotional Realm](https://realbalance.com/the-great-utility-of-coaching-in-the-emotional-realm) ![sad girl beach](https://realbalance.com/images/wellness-blog/800x600/sad-girl-beach.jpg) *According to Plato: Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge.* **Coaches often cautiously retreat from the affective level with their clients for fear of crossing the line into therapy.** Other coaches with a professional mental health background are comfortable going in this direction, but don’t often know how to shift from a therapeutic approach to… [Read more …](https://realbalance.com/the-great-utility-of-coaching-in-the-emotional-realm) ## [The Language of Effective Coaching Accountability](https://realbalance.com/the-language-of-effective-coaching-accountability) ![accountability](https://realbalance.com/images/wellness-blog/800x600/accountability.jpg) While mentoring a coach along the path towards her ACC (Associate Certified Coach through the ICF – International Coaching Federation - [http://coachfederation.org](http://coachfederation.org)) I observed her repeated hesitancy in using accountability in her coaching. As we explored this I found that **in her coach training she had been exposed to a style of enforcing accountability instead of co-creating accountability**… [Read more …](https://realbalance.com/the-language-of-effective-coaching-accountability) ## [The Road Ahead for Wellness Coaching: Trends To Look For](https://realbalance.com/the-road-ahead-for-wellness-coaching-trends-to-look-for) ![long road](https://realbalance.com/images/wellness-blog/800x600/longandwindingroad.jpg) Returning from the 2013 National Wellness Conference this month, I continue to be amazed at how wellness coaching has become such a vital part of the wellness field.  The tiny trickle of interest in wellness coaching that began in the late 1990’s is now practically a tsunami of both excitement and action washing the field forward with surprising speed. … [Read more …](https://realbalance.com/the-road-ahead-for-wellness-coaching-trends-to-look-for) ## [The Tao of Wellness Coaching – Part One – What Centers Us?](https://realbalance.com/the-tao-of-wellness-coaching-part-one-what-centers-us) ![pathway through ferns](https://realbalance.com/images/wellness-blog/800x600/pathwindingferns.jpg) ***When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.*** Lao Tzu **History and Context** ![laozu ox](https://realbalance.com/images/wellness-blog/laozu-ox.gif)It is said that the legendary Chinese sage, Lao Tzu, rode off on the back of an ox when leaving the Middle Kingdom. Before a sentry guard would let him pass out of the city gates, he asked the… [Read more …](https://realbalance.com/the-tao-of-wellness-coaching-part-one-what-centers-us)